** 3 year old ***** gas dryer with some type of dampness sensor **

I'm afraid that is not a lot of help in identifying the appliance you have. What would be most helpful is posting the dryer's complete *model number* as written on the appliance's model and serial number tag.

You can find tips for locating that tag on your appliances in the 'Repair Parts' section of my site linked at the bottom of the page.

** does not fully dry everything, even set on the highest and longest settings. any ideas out there??? **

Have you tried different settings? Eg. timed, auto, fluff, etc. and do that all act the very same??

Does the timer advance to the OFF position or just stall somewhere?

If the timer IS advancing but just the clothes not drying, it might be caused by a plugged, partially plugged or poorly installed dryer vent (see the following link), the gas burner not staying on (for whatever reason) or maybe a problem in the "some type of dampness sensor" which is used on your model (depending on the setting(s) the problem is occurring on).

How long can my dryer vent be?

LINK > http://www.appliance411.com/links/jump.cgi?ID=778

Dan O.

www.Appliance411.com/?ref411=Kenmore+Dryer

The Appliance Information Site

=D~~~~~~

Thank you for your reply: Here is info:

Is is a Whirlpool, model GGQ8811KQ0. The timer does work fine, the vent is clean and good and I tried all settings. I suspect the dampness detector is bad too. thoughts?

** I suspect the dampness detector is bad **

The electronic control or its sensors might be the cause as could the gas burner shutting off prematurely.

Making sure the sensors are not shorted might be the easiest to check? You can read about one form of electronic dryness control at this link:

LINK > http://www.appliance411.com/parts/showcase.dryer-thermo.shtml

JFYI

Dan O.

www.Appliance411.com/?ref411=Whirlpool+Dryer

The Appliance Information Site

=D~~~~~~

DanO: I had a similar problem myself, with a Kenmore, and fortunately I bought the service contract and didn't have to pay for all the service visits! As my (LIMITED) memory and understanding at the time, I think what had been explained to me when we finally figured out which thing was not working right, was that this moisture plus detection system does is sends a current from the back of the dryer to its contacts to the front intermittantly. It manages to do this via the moisture content when the clothes are dry enough at the level you chose, it doesn't conduct the current well, and the system determines that the clothes are now dried at the level you chose. It turned out that the contact plates that are supposed to retrieve this current or static or whatever, were "glazed over" because I had been using either or both of those anti-static dryer sheets and old-style downy. Now to prevent this in the future, I use that advanced downy in the washer, and NEVER use those anti-static softener sheets in the dryer, and haven't had a problem since. I don't recall if it was also due to some special pecularities of my water itself, and I probably got the whole "moisture level" aspect all goofed up, I just recall mainly that the system didn't use an actual "moisture sensor" per-se but that it relied on sending and receiving some kind of electric charge from point A to point B on (back of the drum to the front of the drum) to keep running (moisture). Also that drying imbalanced loads would defeat the entire system (like a heavy large turkish bathsheet towel with lightweight sheets and washclothes; or a load with a pair of heavy denim jeans with a bunch of shirts and lightweight chinos).

Bottom line, now I'm wondering if I understood/remembered how that system worked correctly.